my @field; # Set to desired number of chars or switch for next line # if you want the whole string. my $numchars = 2; # my $numchars = length($text); for(my $i = 0; $i < $numchars; $i++) { my $curchar = substr($text, $i, 1); if ($curchar =~ /\d/) { push @field, $curchar; } }